


Untitled

by Belle_Evans



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Canon Character of Color, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Male Character of Color
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-03
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-30 23:06:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6445930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Belle_Evans/pseuds/Belle_Evans
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been twenty years. It won't be twenty more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Untitled

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally written for smallfandomfest and X-posted there and choc_fic on LJ in 2008 for the first Iron Man movie.
> 
> The prompt at that time was, Don't ask, don't tell. I wrote this after seeing the first film for the first time.

Colonel James Rhodes pressed the palms of his shaking hands against the wall of the hangar's empty office. He understood what was happening to him. Over the course of his long military service he'd seen it happen to others, to the next of kin. He had been in the thick of the Tony Stark search/rescue effort, but he hadn't realized until the moment he saw Tony Stark kneeling in the sand, that he hadn't expected to see his best friend again. The simple truth was, more than Pepper, more than Obadiah, he was the next of kin. With the other man now safely deposited on American soil, long banked grief and relief were dismantling the stoic resolve he'd maintained for three months.

 

**Beginning**

"I'm brilliant. I come up with ideas to help them blow shit up. They love me. Besides when I introduce you as my boyfriend it will make absolute sense." 

That hadn't been the answer James was expecting when he'd asked Tony how exactly he intended to explain his roommate's presence at a retreat with Washington muckity mucks. A retreat, for which only Stark had been extended an invitation and security clearance. 

"You know I'm going to officer training school in three months, you can't joke about shit like that." 

"I'm sure my dad knew somebody on the faculty, you want me to call someone?" He watches Tony's face for the smirk that might at least suggest he's yanking his chain. There is no smirk. 

"I don't know what the big deal is anyway." 

_"The big deal?"_

Tony knows a guy who is a pharmacology genius. From time to time he drops by to share his latest concoctions with Tony. They always end up in long discussions on how to weaponize the latest drug. James peers closely at Tony to see if he is experiencing after effects. He can't tell for sure so he tries again. 

"Officer Training School. The Air Force. Generally, combat pilots don't have boyfriends." 

"I don't see what that has to do with you coming with me." 

Still no smirk. "You son of a bitch." James doesn't know what else to do in that moment. He grabs his gym bag and slams out of the apartment. 

Hours later, exhausted from having run until he thought he would throw up, he trudges into the apartment. He's as quiet as he can be when he passes Tony's room, toeing off his running shoes as he goes. He only manages to work one shoe off before Tony's voice comes to him out of the darkness, deeper and more serious than he has ever heard it. 

"Come here and lie down." 

Fascinated and compelled by the tone of Tony's voice, he quickly toes off his other shoe, drifts into Tony's room and collapses onto Tony's bed. Despite his sweat dampened skin and the smell of exertion, the other man cleaves to him like a leech. 

"I'm really rich Rhodey, like super rich. Extremely rich. You know that right? A guy as rich as I am certainly doesn't have to live in a campus apartment, could probably buy this building if I wanted to get the school to sell it to me. I mean after I graduate they'll probably name it after me. But my point, my point is this. I live here because you wouldn't live anywhere else. You are my boyfriend. I don't know what you need to do to get right with that flyboy, but that's the truth. We been together for like four years man. And frankly it's time you started putting out." 

Maybe it's because he is tired, but he doesn't move, doesn't object. He lays in the narrow bed with the smaller man who hasn't loosened his grip, and lets that declaration settle. 

"I'll go to the conference alone and I won't mention the hot boyfriend I have at home." James laughs, can't help it. With Tony wrapped around him, he falls asleep. 

**Middle**

He has always felt responsible for Tony’s drinking and reputation with women. He understands that it has to do with him and the line he has refused to cross for most of their adult lives. He has always thought that maybe Tony blames him a little bit too. He thinks this most keenly in the middle of a party that is more work than anything else. Though he is willing to allow that it might be a hallucination. 

In the middle of a room crowded with representatives from the various branches of service, other weapons manufacturers and defense contractors, Tony Stark stares at him just a shade too long and mouths the word 'boyfriend'. Then he simply tightens his arm around his redheaded date du jour and downs the rest of his drink. 

Panic flutters in James' chest, but no one else in the room seems to notice or having noticed it they are too drunk to truly let it register. Tony never mentions it and neither does he. For a few weeks after he half expects notification that he is under investigation. Instead, he finds himself with an unanticipated appointment to Stark Industries as military liaison. 

**End**

He holds on too tight and too long, but he has little other choice. The men behind him understand a brothers in arms hug that lasts just a hair too long. They might not understand, however, if he let's discipline slide and slips his fingers into Stark's dusty hair and kisses him. When Tony asks low in his ear, "Is this what it takes flyboy?" He lets go completely as though burnt by something much hotter than the desert sun. 

There was a short debrief aboard the plane that flew Tony Stark out of Iraq. There are two, more formal debriefings after the tarmac. One for the Pentagon and one for Homeland Security. At both, he sits next to Tony, grateful that he hasn't been put in the position of having to unsuccessfully avert his eyes from Tony's gaunt face. 

Once the sessions get rolling, his training allows him to disappear into his professional responsibilities and ask appropriate, national security related questions. It is his personal experience, however, not his military training that alerts him to the fact Tony is not telling the entire truth. There is more than just the decision to close the weapons division of Stark Industries. 

After the press conference, Pepper walks with them to the limo, admonishes Tony to take it easy, squeezes his hand and leaves the two of them alone. Save for Hogan's quiet presence, they are alone for the first time since Stark's return. James hesitates. Stark has just made a huge mess and the military will want some answers from their liaison. 

"Get in the car Rhodey." 

Reflexively, he opens his mouth to protest being given orders, but the tone is in opposition to the words. Stark sounds tired, worn. The show is over. 

At Stark's house James sits in an easy chair his knees pressing against Tony's who sits opposite on the coffee table. He clasps Tony's hands in his own. 

"You know I'm too big an asshole for anything to truly get the best of me. I'm okay." 

James can't help but smile. He lifts his eyes to Tony's, stuttering briefly over the blue glow visible through the thin white of his t-shirt. 

Later clothes discarded, they are skin to skin for the first time, Tony on top. If James had ever been willing to allow his mind to loose its strict discipline just enough to imagine this possibility, his ego probably would never have allowed this specific version. In the reality, his ego hasn't put up much of a fight. 

The warmth of his best friend's skin against his is broken only by the foreign contour. His body flinches a little at the initial sensation against his chest. And Tony pushes himself up and braces his hands on either side of Jame's head. Peering down with dark serious eyes, the pre-Iraq mocking is gone. 

He isn't able to stop his fingers from tracing the skin of the device keeping Tony alive. 

"I'm like the energizer Bunny baby. No worries." 

"Pepper isn't going to show up tomorrow morning with my uniform fully pressed is she?" 

"No," Tony answers tersely. "We're consummated. Tomorrow, you're going to fill out whatever form you need to fill out in triplicate, quadruplicate what the hell ever that gets you moved out of G.I. Joe housing and into this house." 

He inhales as if to speak, but before he has a chance to do so, Tony settles his weight fully and asks in a voice that is uncharacteristically soft. 

"What if I had died Rhodey?" 

Colonel James Rhodes has served his country with honor and distinction for more than twenty years. He has the relevant commendations and medals. And none of that service or those accomplishments have given him an unmitigated right to Tony Stark. His arms tighten around Tony's back. If Tony had died he would have been left with ashes. 

"G.I. Joe is Army." Tony snorts into his neck. 

"I could put in for retirement," he ventures. As soon as he says it, he knows that he will. Tony's head lifts from his chest. Eyes sparkling. 

"Thank God. Finally, you can come and work for me." 

"Work for you?" He says as indignantly as a naked man, flat on his back can. The person he has loved for almost half his life rolls his eyes. 

"Work with me." 

"Maybe." 

"Definitely." 

**Fin**


End file.
